The latest on California politics and government

September 11, 2012

REDWOOD CITY - Gov. Jerry Brown, who told The Bee's editorial board last week he wasn't aware of the federal government's concerns about Caltrans and bridge testing, didn't respond to the question when he was asked this morning if he had followed up on those concerns.

"This whole Caltrans-Sacramento Bee story is kind of curious," he said.

The Bee reported last month that Caltrans had uncovered doctored data and other testing problems on roadways and bridges, including on work done on the new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, even as Caltrans engineers said tests were valid and the bridge safe.

The Federal Highway Administration, in a draft assessment, criticized Caltrans officials for waiting years to rigorously review testing problems. Asked last week about the fact that the federal government had concerns, Brown replied, "I don't know that to be the case."

"I would be glad to have The Bee and our engineers have greater conversations," Brown told reporters at a bill-signing event here. "I don't know why that can't be done, but we'll work at it."

He said, "You've got the engineers saying things are on track. We have a couple of reporters saying, 'Hey, they're not on track.' I tend to have confidence in the engineers, but I've got an open mind, and certainly we can have some more dialogue."

However, Brown said of the dialogue he is interested in having, "I want to have it with engineers and, you know, just not people who don't know what the hell they're talking about."